Publications

2014
Chapter

The Elusive Quest for Impact: The Evolving Practice of Social Impact Measurement

By: Brian Trelstad

Find at Harvard

Editorial

Companies Must Include Environmental and Social Performance Measures

By: George Serafeim

Keywords: Sustainability; Impact; ESG; Transparency; Accounting

June, 2021
Article

Learning from Deregulation: The Asymmetric Impact of Lockdown and Reopening on Risky Behavior During COVID-19

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Ginger Zhe Jin, Benjamin T. Leyden and Michael Luca

During the COVID-19 pandemic, states issued and then rescinded stay-at-home orders that restricted mobility. We develop a model of learning by deregulation, which predicts that lifting stay-at-home orders can signal that going out has become safer. Using restaurant... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Lockdown; Reopening; Impact; Coronavirus; Public Health Measures; Mobility; Health Pandemics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Consumer Behavior

02 Nov 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting for Organizational Employment Impact

Keywords: by David Freiberg, Katie Panella, George Serafeim, and T. Robert Zochowski

April 2021
Exercise

Valuing Employment Exercise

By: George Serafeim, Ethan Rouen and Katie Panella

The Valuing Employment exercise can be used to show the importance of impact measurement in designing incentives and contracts. The exercise has two phases. In the first phase, participants play the role of managers at the State of Massachusetts Infrastructure... View Details

Keywords: Bid Evaluation; Workforce; Impact Measurement; Bids and Bidding; Contracts; Design; Measurement and Metrics

July 22, 2014
Blog Post

What Impact? Resist Taking Credit for Results You Can't Achieve

By: Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

Keywords: Impact Measurement; Measurement and Metrics; Outcome or Result

Teaching Interest

Investing for Impact

By: Archie L. Jones

The Field Course: Investing for Impact was born out of the efforts of HBS students and faculty in the spring of 2020 and offered for the first time in fall semester of 2021.

This course seeks to help students understand why certain... View Details

May 2012
Technical Note

Frameworks for Dialogue and Research about Social Impact Investing

By: Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard

Social Impact Investment is a rapidly expanding field, but terminology in the field is poorly defined and imprecise. This note suggests frameworks that help to clarify important dimensions of SII projects, distinguishing and clarifying key differences in approaches to... View Details

Keywords: Development Stage Enterprises; Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurial Finance; Financial Instruments; Performance Measurement; Balanced Scorecard; Investment Funds; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Research; Framework; Entrepreneurship; Financial Services Industry

October 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Wilderness Safaris: Impact Investing and Ecotourism Conservation in Africa

By: James E. Austin, Megan Epler Wood and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard

In 2018 the majority ownership of publicly owned Wilderness Safaris, the leading high-end ecotourism company in Africa with safari operations in eight countries, was acquired by The Rise Fund, one of the world’s largest private social impact investing funds, and by FS... View Details

January 2018
Technical Note

Business at the Base of the Pyramid: Understanding Impact and Impact Evaluations

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

Unlike financial success, there is no clear consensus regarding how best to define and measure social impact. This HBS Technical Note written for students of the HBS MBA course Business at the Base of the Pyramid (BBOP), offers readers pragmatic perspectives on how the... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Social Issues; Value Creation; Human Needs; Performance Evaluation

14 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The New Measures for Improving Nonprofit Performance

investment in a nonprofit was handled strategically it would yield a greater impact for the people served. In an organization with compelling leadership, vision, and evidence of outcomes that were making a material difference in the lives... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

2006
Article

Performance Measure Properties and the Effect of Incentive Contracts

By: J. Bouwens and L. van Lent

Using data from a third-party survey on compensation practices at 151 Dutch firms, we show that less noisy or distorted performance measures and higher cash bonuses are associated with improved employee selection and better-directed effort. Specifically, (1) an... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Data and Data Sets; Problems and Challenges; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Netherlands

Find at Harvard

04 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Start to Measure Your E-commerce Success

stringent economic environment and the widely publicized negative impacts of many e-commerce initiatives has caused many senior managers to question the payoffs of e-commerce investments. As companies assess the choice of appropriate... View Details

Keywords: by Marc J. Epstein

October 2023
Case

Prime Coalition: Estimating Climate Impact

By: Natalia Rigol, Benjamin N. Roth, Brian Trelstad and Amram Migdal

A case on CRANE, a tool to help investors and green technology companies estimate the future climate impact of new technologies and products, called emissions reduction potential (ERP). The case includes material on CRANE’s methodology for estimating future carbon... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Environmental Accounting; Analysis; Climate Change; Green Technology; Innovation and Invention; Measurement and Metrics; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Risk and Uncertainty; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Enterprise

12 May 2021
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting for Product Impact in the Water Utilities Industry

Keywords: by George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

09 Jul 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Limits of Nonprofit Impact: A Contingency Framework for Measuring Social Performance

Keywords: by Alnoor Ebrahim & V. Kasturi Rangan

11 Jan 2021
Working Paper Summaries

Accounting for Product Impact in the Airlines Industry

Keywords: by George Serafeim and Katie Trinh; Air Transportation; Transportation

2012
Other Unpublished Work

Measuring Shared Value: How to Unlock Value by Linking Business and Social Results

By: Michael E. Porter, Greg Hills, Marc Pfitzer, Sonja Patscheke and Elizabeth Hawkins

Measuring shared value allows companies to maximize opportunities for innovation, growth, and social impact at scale. This article explains the specific purpose of shared value measurement and offers a step-by-step process and pragmatic approaches to measurement with... View Details

Keywords: Society

2020
Working Paper

A Preliminary Framework for Product Impact-Weighted Accounts

By: George Serafeim and Katie Trinh

While there has been significant progress in the measurement of an organization’s environmental and social impacts from its operations, metrics to evaluate the impact of products once they come to market lag far behind. In this paper, we provide a framework for... View Details

Keywords: Social Impact; Product Life Cycle; Environment; Sustainability; Measurement; Metrics; Impact Investing; ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Reporting; Product; Environmental Sustainability; Measurement and Metrics; Framework; Financial Statements

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